Futurama vs. The Simpsons

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Springfield or the Planet Express? Homer or Bender? We ask for your final verdict.

By Robert Canning

It's easy to want to compare The Simpsons to Futurama, and when the latter premiered in 1999, that's exactly what we did. After all, both came from the mind of creator Matt Groening and they share similar artistic styles as well as a common sense of humor. But where one is rooted in our real world present day, the other takes us to a far off future full of robots and aliens. Eleven years later, with The Simpsons still on the air and Futurama resurrected from cancellation, it's time to see how these animated series match up today.

We'll compare varying aspects of each show, including the characters, storylines and yes, the weaknesses – before asking you, the IGN reader, which is your ultimate favorite.

One thing you cannot say about Futurama is that it's simply The Simpsons in space. But there are a great number of similarities, starting with the vast cast of characters developed within both shows.

At the center of The Simpsons you have the family that shares the show's title. Parents Homer and Marge struggle to make their way in the world raising their three kids, Bart, Lisa and Maggie. At its heart, The Simpsons is a family comedy.

Futurama does not have a host of blood relatives as their main characters, but the crew of Planet Express is certainly a family. It has "parents" in the form of Leela, Professor Farnsworth and Hermes, who do what they can to run things. Their "kids" are Fry, Bender, Amy and Dr. Zoidberg, who have done more than their fair share of trouble making. If Leela is the Marge of Futurama, then Fry is a hybrid of Homer and Bart. Professor Farnsworth is Grampa Simpson, with an added knack for creating doomsday devices. So at the heart of both series is a family unit that looks out for each other and from which all the stories can be told.

Within their respective worlds, both series have been able to establish a vast array of supporting characters, and again, similarities abound. The Simpsons laid out a framework of characters that Futurama, consciously or not, took notes from to build their world. Some of these examples stand out as quite obvious. Springfield has the evil billionaire Mr. Burns tormenting the townsfolk for his own personal gains. The future Earth has billionaire Mom tormenting the galaxy. She even has three lackeys (her sons) that could stand-in for Mr. Burns' Smithers. Both series have put their own spin on commonly used archetypes. Both shows have recurring newscasters in Kent Brockman and the team of Linda and Morbo. Both have recurring famous television stars in Krusty the Clown and Calculon. If you need to tell a story about the mafia, you've got Fat Tony and Donbot. On The Simpsons, you have the Squeaky-Voiced Teen who's always popping up at some random, menial occupation somewhere in the city. On Futurama, it's Sal who will be the guy you're bound to see on the job. The Simpsons clearly developed a framework for establishing a cast of characters that cover a broad spectrum of society, and Futurama wisely followed suit.

One big difference between the two sets of characters is the fact that those on The Simpsons are icons. Show my mother a picture of Homer Simpson, she'll not only be able to name him, but she will likely quote his famous "D'oh!" Show her a picture of Fry or Bender, and she might tell me I make pretty drawings. The characters on The Simpsons are globally famous and have traits that are well established and known by the greater part of the population. Futurama, while doing a fantastic job building its cast and developing its characters, will likely never reach that pinnacle of notoriety and remain more of a cult series.

While it's relatively easy to find similarities among the character types used by both programs, the two series differ greatly when it comes to the stories they tell. The setting is a big factor in this, and we'll talk more about that shortly. The other major factor is the genre of television each series occupies. Yes, both can be classified as animation, but one is rooted in family sitcoms while the other is most certainly a science-fiction series. One establishes some limitations while the other pretty much leaves things wide open.

The Simpsons started out as a fairly straightforward family situation comedy, with a few embellishments that animation could provide. The Simpson clan would face a problem—a work issue, a money issue, a school issue, etc.—and then spend the remainder of the half hour finding ways to overcome that problem to reach a happy ending. Unlike the majority of family comedies on the air when The Simpsons debuted, this animated comedy didn't tie things up with a pretty little bow. The family would find their happy ending, but it did so with a dysfunctional edge and a darkness of humor that made the series a standout from day one. And they only got better as the seasons progressed and the stories could be stretched even further. As the cast got larger, stories went from Bart needing to pass a test to Bart being put on trial for the apparent murder of Principal Skinner. During the best years of the series, The Simpsons could take a real life family situation like changing jobs and moving to a new town and turn it into a comedic take on unknowingly working for a world class Bond villain. The series even gave itself the opportunity to stretch further beyond reality with its annual "Treehouse of Horror" episodes, where stories could be told of any nature imaginable.

Futurama has had that kind of opportunity from the start. Beginning in the year 3000 and loaded with robots, space travel, aliens and mutants, Futurama was seemingly held back by nothing. Following the exploits of a deep space delivery crew, the series became perhaps the funniest science-fiction adventure series television has ever seen. While the Simpsons would need a "Treehouse" episode to tell the tale of a rampaging werewolf, Futurama can deliver a story about a were-car that fits right in the middle of the show's standard continuity. Given the ability to work with parallel universes and time travel, plus a cast of aliens, robots and mutants, Futurama can regularly deliver Twilight Zone-style twists with their Simpsons-size laughs. And for fun they also have their "Treehouse"-like "Anthology of Interest" episodes where they can push the limits even further without affecting the continuity of the series.

But storytelling is nothing if not universal. Though their genres are vastly different, with limitations for one and endless possibilities for the other, the majority of stories in both series boil down to something we can all relate to. Whether it's Fry pining for Leela, Homer doing anything he can to support his family, or Lisa and Leela both trying to find their place in the world, the heart of every story will always come down to basic human emotions.

Continue on to Page 2, where we compare the Settings and Weaknesses of the two series.